film: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 10, 2026

Facts

Also Known As	cinema • moving picture • motion picture • movie

Photos and Videos

Director Sir David Lean sits atop a ladder beside a film camera, surrounded by crew and equipment on the set of Doctor Zhivago (1965) under a blue sky.

Salvatore Corsitto leans in to speak to Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in a dimly lit scene from the film The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Scene from King Kong (1933) showing Kong atop the Empire State Building, swatting at a biplane with the New York City skyline in the background.

Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane stands at a podium giving a speech, with a large banner of his character's face and the word Kane behind him in Citizen Kane.

Robert Montgomery, Lloyd Nolan, and Audrey Totter in a black-and-white publicity still from Lady in the Lake (1947); Montgomery holds a revolver while the others look on.

Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta stands in a boxing ring as the referee counts out Kevin Mahon, playing Tony Janiro, who lies knocked out on the canvas in Raging Bull.

D.W. Griffith: Intolerance

Red and white striped popcorn bucket against a purple background.

Study film-making techniques employed in an adaptation of John Millington Synge's The Well of the Saints

A black and white still from 1927 film "The Jazz Singer."

Follow a director as he films a motion picture adaption of Eugène Ionesco's The New Tenant

A black-and-white hand-drawn dinosaur bends down to drink from a lake.

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Topics

jump cut History of film sound film AFI 100 Greatest American Films of All Time film preservation experimental cinema gangster film mumblecore motion-picture theatre studio system Architecture dance radio Printmaking Sculpture Painting Drawing History of photography garden and landscape design literature

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Key People

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Vivian Blaine

American actress

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James Ivory

American director

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Theodore Bikel

Austrian-born actor. singer, and political activist

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Martin Balsam

American actor

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Betty Comden

American songwriter

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Saeed Jaffrey

Indian-born actor

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Maggie Gyllenhaal

American actress

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Stewart Granger

American actor

Portrait of Miranda July in a black blouse, standing beside a patterned wall with one hand raised near her hair.

Miranda July

American writer, film director, and artist

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Madeline Kahn

American actress

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Joan Hickson

British actress

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Abe Vigoda

American actor

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Judith Malina

American theater director and actress

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Karel Reisz

Czechoslovak-born British director

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James Goldman

American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist

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Kevin Hart

American actor and comedian

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Brian Keith

American actor

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Al Shean

American actor

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Joey Bishop

American comedian

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Ben Johnson

American actor

Academy Awards (Oscars) statue at the 2011 ceremonies in Los Angeles, California. (motion pictures, films, cinema)

Another Academy Awards Quiz

Publicity still showing Harold Lloyd from the motion picture film "Safety Last!" (1923); directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. (movies, cinema)

Everything About Movies Quiz

Publicity still with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman from the motion picture film "Casablanca" (1942); directed by Michael Curtiz. (cinema, movies)

Best Picture Movie Quote Quiz

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, with her dog, Toto, from the motion picture film The Wizard of Oz (1939); directed by Mervyn LeRay. (cinema, movies)

Classic Closing Lines

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma

Famous Hollywood Film Characters Quiz

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood

Pop Culture Quiz

Illustration of movie theater popcorn bucket, cinema ticket, clapboard, and film reel. (movies, hollywood, pop culture, 3D render)

Hollywood What If Quiz

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, with her dog, Toto, from the motion picture film The Wizard of Oz (1939); directed by Mervyn LeRay. (cinema, movies)

Classic Closing Lines

Jodie Foster American actress in her Academy Award winning performance as the FBI agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) where she tracks the serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (in background) played by actor Anthony Hopkins.

You Can’t Handle the Truth: Famous Movie Quotes

Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Role Call

Publicity still from the motion picture film "The Terminator" (1984); directed by James Cameron. (cinema, movies)

Match the Quote to the Movie Quiz

Robert Altman (1925-2006) Lobby card of actors Donald Sutherland, left, and Elliott Gould in the comedy film M*A*S*H (1970) directed by Robert Altman. MASH movie Korean War

A Movie Lesson

The Jazz Singer (1927) Actor Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz with Eugenie Besserer, who plays his mother as Sara Rabinowitz in a scene from the musical film directed by Alan Crosland. First feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue. The Jazz Singer

Film Buff

Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Star Trekking